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So, WW, what would you do?

We've received my employer's "plan". Which should've been last week's plan, but I digress:

Our reception area will
be closed to the public starting at noon on Wednesday, March 25,
2020. Please make phone conference appointments.

All intake appointments
will be phone conferences using Name.

Please limit any
gatherings in the hall or in the office to less than 2 or 3 people.

All employees who have
individual offices or are at least 6 feet from the next employee may
continue to come into work. (ETA: This is me, I'm 6 feet from the next employee)

Employees who have
a work space closer than 6 feet or that are not in contained spaces, we
are setting up a shift rotation. This will be published Wednesday
afternoon to start on Thursday, March 26, 2020.

If you are uncomfortable
with any of these arrangements, please talk to Name. We will do
our best to make appropriate accommodations for you.

Finally, use common
sense. If you have a fever or sick, let us know and do NOT come into work.

This is a measured
approach, but we will continue to change and modify it as the situation
evolves.

We've already found out one of our new cases was all.over.the.damn.city at multiple restaurants and stores. IDK.

I would see if you can work out WFH, since you don’t do a lot of client-facing work, right? I might frame it as protecting you, but also anyone else who is still coming in to the office. It’s in their best interest to have as few people there as possible.

Even if you’re 6ft at your desk from other folks you still have to share common bathrooms/elevators/space so I don’t know how much that distance truly matters.

So, I'm going to take tomorrow to try and think about it and go ahead and talk to Name, who frankly, I don't expect to do a damn thing but I'll try. At least if I get fired, I can write up that I tried to work it out. In looking at this list, the only thing that changes anything about my situation right now, is the very first one. And...that's not enough. It doesn't change the fact that K works with a special needs respiratory child with a trach. It doesn't change my personal danger from anyone here.

I'm really not interesting in losing my job, but I'm pretty invested in not getting this virus. I'm actually in one of the higher risk groups at my age and with asthma (usually allergy induced, but hey guess what time of the year it is).

I would talk to Name and tell them that I need accommodations to work from home, and that if they can't do it, I'll be on leave until further notice. What your employer is doing is BS. It's not ok to risk people's health because you (management) can't wrap your head around WFH. This is not a joke; this is a global pandemic. 6 feet is a minimum protection when you're forced to go out for necessities. It is not sufficient to protect an office full of people day in and day out. This is not going to go away until people can actually separate and isolate.

Like you mentioned, that "plan" does not sound different at all! Other than the office will no longer be open to the public.

But like other PPs have mentioned, even staying 6 ft. away from coworkers still isn't ideal. From what I understand, the virus can stay in the air for up to 3 hours. And it can stay on surfaces for 24+ hours.

Our nightly cleaning service, Name is using an EPA
approved disinfectant to clean offices, common areas, and restrooms. They will
be adding to their usual scope of duties, cleaning light switches, door
knobs, restroom doors and more. This EPA approved product kills a
long list of viruses in as little as 15 seconds.

Of course, during the work day, we recommend that you be
mindful and clean your phones and keyboards, remote controls, countertops or
any frequently touched area’s with a Lysol, Clorox or Purell product.
These products made the EPA’s disinfectant list to kill the coronavirus.
We will make these cleaning items available to you in common areas.

****************************************************************

I'm having to take a bit of a mental break. IDK what to do, I'm angry for being put into this position when we are absolutely able to work from home, he's just refusing to do it. We could all just walk with our desktops, plug in, and work from home. It's maddening. And to pretend it's about "our clients"...it's not. It's about his money.